Selfies and Beyond: What Americans Are Really Doing With Their Smartphones

February 28, 2014

What are Americans really doing on their smartphones? The vast majority – 85% – rely on their smartphone for basic lifestyle activities, according to a survey of 1,000 U.S. adults by security app Clean Master. The data reveals which smartphone activities are most popular (and how that varies between men and women), the security concerns of smartphone owners, and – drumroll please – the most popular types of selfies (because apparently there are selfie categories now).

Here are the top five most popular categories of smartphone use:

email (65%)

social media (46%)

calendar (44%)

news (35%)

shopping (20%)

Other smartphone activities commonly reported included hooking up (6%) and dating (4%).

Even more interesting: the study found that the most popular smartphone activities vary by gender and geographic location. For example, men are significantly more likely than women to depend on their smartphone for activities like hooking up (9% men vs. 2% women), and dating (6% men vs. 2% women). However, women were more likely than men to depend on their smartphone for:

email (69% women vs. 60% men)

social media (56% women vs. 35% men)

calendar (48% women vs. 39% men)

shopping (24% women vs. 15% men)

a ‘selfie with friend’

And now for the juiciest statistics — respondents were asked which type of selfies they take the most:

selfies with friends – 17%

mirror selfies – 10%

selfies of themself at work – 7%

naked selfies – 5%

workout selfies – 4%

Men are twice as likely than women to take naked selfies (6% men vs. 3% women) and “belfies” (butt selfies — who knew?) at 2% men vs. 1% women. Women are twice as likely to take selfies with friends (22% women vs. 11% men).

The survey also asked about security concerns. Two-thirds of respondents expressed concern about whether their mobile security needs are being addressed. Here’s a list of the top five security concerns:

identity protection (40%)

securing financial information (38%)

viruses (34%)

email hacking (28%)

spam (24%)

Are you surprised by any of these numbers (or by the existence of the term ‘belfie’ – which is apparently all the range among celebrities)? Selfies aside, the research clearly indicates our reliance on smartphones for multiple daily activities – and illustrates trends (by gender and location) that can help mobile marketers find the right demographic.

The survey was conducted from February 6-10 among 1,000 U.S. adults ages 18 and older.